A HOLIDAY MAKER has praised a “true gent” who managed to find his lost engagement ring with the help of his trusty metal detector.

Gavin Reay was camping at Churchtown Farm in Gwithian with his wife Kerry and their family when he lost the ring that is worth around £2,500.

He immediately contacted the farm’s reception who told Mr Reay about Darren Troon, an Illogan man who appeared in the West Briton back in June when he found his wedding ring five years after losing it at a football match at Wendron.

Mr Troon arrived at the campsite after work and immediately got to work searching the ground, finding the ring in just five minutes.

Mr Reay, who lives in Nottingham, said: “We were down at Gwithian bodyboarding when my wife and I took off all of our jewellery and put it in a little pocket in a board bag I bought earlier on in St Ives.

“We then went back to the tent and I stood the board up against the tent, took my wallet out but forgot to do the zip back up.

“The bag fell over so I shook it out and that’s when the contents must have fallen out.”

Mr Reay’s nephew was playing by the tent and it was when he declared that he had found some coins that the penny dropped and Mr Reay realised that it was the items in the pocket that were on the ground.

“I felt absolutely devastated, especially because it was mine and Kerry’s wedding anniversary the following day.”

When Mr Troon arrived he immediately picked up a signal and dug down and found the ring lodged three or four inches underground.

“Darren was gutted for me but when he found it we were all in tears and so relieved.

“He refused to accept payment and was a true gent. He just sums up the people around here, all incredibly friendly and helpful.”

Darren Troon lost the ring playing football for Robartes on the top pitch at Wendron Cricket Club and had long since given up any hope of finding it.

When preparing to join the game as a substitute, player-manager Darren took the ring off and put it in his warm-up jacket pocket before discarding the garment on the side of the pitch between the dugout and the corner flag.

It was only when he got back to the changing room that he realised that the ring had fallen out of his pocket.

“After the game myself, teammates and the referee went up to the pitch to see if we could find it, but we were battling the light and ran out of time and weren’t able to locate it.

“I then forgot about it over the years and it wasn’t until I started metal detecting as a hobby that I decided to go up to the pitch and see if I could find it.”

Darren then rang Wendron CC chairman Peter Thorne who gave his blessing for him to go up and search the pitch once the football season had ended and remarkably it took Darren just half an hour to find his wedding ring.

“I knew roughly where it would have fallen out so I focussed on that area of the pitch straight away.

“I dug up a few empty cans of energy drink before I saw something gleaming in the turf and I immediately knew that I had found my wedding ring.

“I was gobsmacked so went down to the clubhouse and told Peter Thorne and he was made up for me.”

Somebody else who was more than “made up” with the discovery was Darren's wife Clare.

“I returned home and hid the ring under a pile of rubbish and when my wife realised what it was she couldn’t believe it.”

Darren had only taken up metal detecting six months ago after retiring from playing football.